From today’s Jersey Journal, some hubbub yesterday when a robot was used to blow up a suspicious package that turned out to be full of clothing.
Gregory Borras Jr., a “former fire instructor with the former North Bergen Fire Department before it merged with north hudson regional fire” [are we confused yet?], spied the package and alerted authorities.
“We were crossing the bridge over the PATH trains (on Kennedy Boulevard) and saw this package wrapped very tightly in cellophane,” said Borras, who now lives in Seaside Park. “What was inside the cellophane was black, so it looked like something else was wrapped up inside it.
“I have training in weapons of mass destruction, so I know what to look for,” Borras said, adding that he took a three-day domestic preparedness class in 1999.
Why did they blow it up?!
(Why didn’t they just have the robot OPEN it?!)
Where can I sign up for that class?
This four year degree in vigilance is getting dusty.
Okay, before Her Lateness starts shrieking (especially about “stormtroopers”), maybe this was a case of too much. Maybe
And an (isolated) quote about “three days training” makes Mr. Borras sound like someone who in a sitcom takes a correspondence course in, say, wizardry or plumbing and is still unqualified about “14 e-z weeks” to either cast a spell or change a washer.
But still, we may have to expect the occasional instance of “too much” of this nature. It’s also, of course, what terrorists hope will happen in our society, that we will so live on the edge.”
I say we have to accept that edge, and show that we can take it. Besides, there’s always something like the Root Beer Tonic vended at the The Remedy with which to quaff down our fears.
Three day course six years ago? Give me a break. I am so so sick and tired of Joe Q. Public picking up the phone everytime the find something that strikes them as “suspicious.” (Inevitably involving someone with sark skin, like a Brazillian or a Sikh.) The bottom line is that all of this busy body work by people is accomplishing nothing. 100,000s of “tips” later, none of this is helping anybody. Leave the law enforcement and investigatory work to people who have more than an eight hour class six years ago.
I rather doubt that terrorists label their exposives BOMB. The whole idea is to disguise it as somthing harmless.
That being the case, it stands to reason that just as bombs may be mistaken for harmless items, sometimes harmless items will be mistaken for bombs. I would rather that it be the latter instead of the former.
Another bag in the street (Bushwick, Brooklyn) — someone fortunately got close enough to find it had a baby inside…
https://abclocal.go.com/wabc/news/wabc_072905_babyfoundAM.html
I rather doubt that terrorists label their explosives BOMB. The whole idea is to disguise them as somthing harmless.
That being the case, it stands to reason that just as bombs may be mistaken for harmless items, sometimes harmless items will be mistaken for bombs. I would rather that it be the latter instead of the former.
I rather doubt that terrorists label their explosives BOMB. The whole idea is to disguise them as somthing harmless.
That being the case, it stands to reason that just as bombs may be mistaken for harmless items, sometimes harmless items will be mistaken for bombs. I would rather that it be the latter instead of the former.
Gregory Borras Jr., a former fire instructor with the former North Bergen Fire Departmen—SOOOOOOOO
it would stand to reason he would have gone thru some type of mass destruction course-unlike just some average person preparing for the end of the world-
it would stand to reason wouldn’t it to call in emergency services —
they in turn thry use a very very costly robbot to blow the package up
(Because if it had been a bomb the robot would get blown UP)
it would stand to reason then that perhaps this wasn’t so silly since if it had been a bomb -we wouldn’t be gigglying–
the baby was found in a different kind of packaging–thank heaven–
and joe Q public is one of the best tools utalized in law enforcement–(not too long ago a busy body waitress recovered a female child from the hand of a homicidal pediophial)–
when in doubt call the police or fire department–being concerned is a far cry from being hysterical–being concerned citizen is far from being vigialanty–
it is not uncommon in a career of law enforcement and fire training to go to intensive training classes that last only one day or perhaps if very lucky (like going to Quantico) 6 months–
forgive my spelling–vigialante-pedophile
it would stand to rreason to spell check before posting
“Leave the law enforcement and investigatory work to people who have more than an eight hour class six years ago.”
These highly-trained law-enforcement folk are the ones who tell us to watch out for suspicious packages and report them.
touche’ Walleroo.
BTW, you_gotta_believe, what would have happened to the abandoned baby in Brooklyn if “Joe Q. Public” hadn’t taken the initiative to check out the suspicious looking package but had left the “investigatory work to people who have more than an eight hour class six years ago.”